The “iconic image of Steve Jobs in the lotus position with a Mac on his lap” is exactly that, iconic. It was taken by South African born photographer Norman Seeff and is instantly recognisable. Now, for the first time ever, Seeff has released out-takes from that same shoot.

The shoot from 1984, sees a 29-year-old Jobs relaxing in his home. Throughout his life, the tech legend was notoriously reclusive and Seeff’s almost unrestricted access was pretty much unheard of. Seeff, who released the images to Retronaut, also shared his account of the session on the site.

I began the session by shooting the Mac team at the Apple offices and I could see Steve lurking in the background. It was clear that he was checking out how things were going. We were having tremendous fun and I was getting a lot of spontaneous and joyful shots. I guess Steve was feeling really good about this, otherwise he would not have invited me to his home.

Seeff goes on to describe his methods and process and how he develops “a relationship and emotional intimacy” with his subjects by revealing himself.

I never fixate on a shot. It’s always about a spontaneous unfolding experience. I discovered early on in my own process that if I aimed for a particular outcome or goal, the emotional authenticity was lost. Perhaps I could be called an experimentalist – creating an experience that I then document on a roll of film.

As I was working with Steve, I was watching him become more and more comfortable until I felt as though I’m hanging out with a big adolescent in his pad.

And, like so many before and after him, he could not help but be drawn in by Jobs’s magnetism. Nor could he deny his horizonless vision and drive to succeed.

Steve was truly a visionary. Being a visionary is an intuitive faculty of being able to see beyond the current horizons of possibility. It is a powerful reflection of imagination not constrained by everyday boundaries. He was extraordinarily impatient with people who said “it couldn’t be done”. That was where some of his purported dictatorial unreasonableness would come from but in the end, he got what he wanted and everyone discovered that what seemed impossible could be done. Steve made the impossible possible.

You can read the full account here.

[Source: Retronaut]